


Why You Love Me

by situationnormal



Category: K-pop, Shinhwa
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-04
Updated: 2014-09-04
Packaged: 2018-02-16 04:03:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2255178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/situationnormal/pseuds/situationnormal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eric makes a book of Dongwan's dumb quotations so he'll see how embarrassing he is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Why You Love Me

“All right, Jin-ah, thanks for your help. Yeah. I’ll call you later.” Eric threw his phone down on the couch and raised the pen he had been holding in his other hand, biting it pensively. The book he’d been working on looked pretty good—for something so silly.  
  
It had started several weeks before, when Dongwan had made some stupid comment about Hyesung’s spicy hand while filming Shinhwa Broadcast. Dongwan’s jokes were always dumb, but that one had struck him particularly so. Later that night, over drinks, he and Junjin had talked about the day’s events and the other man had mentioned it offhandedly. Even after drinking, it seemed more dumb than funny.  
  
“You should start keeping track of all of the dumb stuff he says, hyung, and show him sometime,” Junjin had said, laughing.  
  
“Yeah, maybe one day he'll be as embarrassing to himself as he is to us,” Eric had agreed.  
  
It had been funny at first, a little piece of a much longer conversation, but for days after Eric had thought back to it until he'd finally bought a notebook. At first, he and Junjin had worked on grilling the other members for Dongwan's most embarrassing moments. After that, Eric had worked on the book himself, writing down anything that came up. It hadn't taken long for the—admittedly small—journal to fill up. Dongwan had been even more embarrassing than usual since Shinhwa Broadcast had started filming.  
  
Now, with all of the pages filled, the “book” was ready for consumption. Eric had called Dongwan over for drinks, but hadn’t actually expected the other man to show up—he had stopped drinking on weeknights. To his surprise, Dongwan had agreed if they could drink at Eric’s apartment instead of going out somewhere. He had sounded so exhausted on the phone, Eric almost felt bad calling him out for something so ridiculous. But the book was finished, and he always looked forward to the completion of a good prank. Plus, it wasn’t like the book was going to suck all of Dongwan’s energy out, and Eric would provide free drinks as a return on the laughs at Wannie’s expense.

 

* * *

 

Dongwan was 12 minutes late, which was pretty early for a Shinhwa member. Eric only had time to shove the book under a couch cushion before he had punched in the door code and let himself in.  
  
“Why bother ringing the bell when you’re going to come in on your own?” Eric asked, sounding even less annoyed than he’d intended. He was surprised at how happy he was to see Dongwan standing there, looking tired but mutually happy to see him.  
  
“Wanted to give you time to put your clothes on,” Dongwan joked, kicking his shoes off and padding into the kitchen in his toe socks—ignoring the extra pair of slippers in the entry way. He put a plastic bag down on the counter and raised his eyebrows at Eric. “Are you hungry?”  
  
Eric jumped off of the couch, nearly running to the island Dongwan was leaning against. He started pulling items out of the bag—filled with nothing too salty, unfortunately. Just like Dongwan to bring boring snacks. But, still, snacks. As he shoved a piece of dried squid into his mouth he threw his other arm haphazardly over Dongwan’s shoulder and nuzzled it with his face.  
  
“What’s wrong with you tonight?” Dongwan asked, grinning and shaking Eric’s head off of his shoulder.  
  
“Nothing, I just didn’t expect to see you. I’m happy you showed up,” Eric said, turning to grab the alcohol from the fridge.  
  
“You don’t normally call me and ask me to drink with you. I was curious,” Dongwan responded.  
  
Eric only smiled in response, the sudden reminder about why Dongwan was actually there already funny—watching him open the book was going to be too much fun to handle. The two men gathered the various snacks and alcohol cans and bottles and relocated them to the coffee table, settling down around it and making themselves comfortable.  
  
“So, what’s up? Why did you call?” Dongwan asked, pouring himself a glass of soju and ignoring Eric’s protests that he would pour it for him.  
  
“Do I have to have a reason to want to drink with my best friend?” Eric asked, pouring his own glass.  
  
“Hmm. I thought Hyesung was your best friend,” Dongwan said, suddenly smiling again.  
  
Eric laughed and downed his glass, watched Dongwan do the same, and began to fill them both again. “Yeah, well, you’re my best friend who I can talk to without being hit.” Dongwan raised his eyebrows and Eric, recalling some of their previous conversations, smiled. “Fine, then, my best friend who I hit back?”  
  
“Let’s go with that, then,” Dongwan said, laughing. “So you called me over here to talk, then? What are we talking about?”  
  
“We’re not talking about anything. We’re drinking.”

 

* * *

 

After a couple of hours, and five shared bottles of soju, not to mention a couple of beers, both Dongwan and Eric had chatted about all of the other members, how the last round of promotions had gone, and how Shinhwa Broadcast was progressing. Somehow, Eric felt nervous about giving Dongwan the book. He had meant to give it to him as soon as they were tipsy enough that Dongwan (maybe, hopefully) wouldn’t get angry and want to fight him over it—which was a possibility he and Junjin had discussed more than once—but the more they talked, the closer he felt to the other man, and he hadn’t wanted to interrupt it and change the mood.  
  
“Eric, you should tell me why you called now.” Dongwan’s voice broke through Eric’s fuzzy thinking, shocking him into knocking over the almost-empty bottle of soju sitting between their hands on the table.  
  
“Shit,” Eric said, lurching forward so suddenly his head had begun to spin.  
  
“I’ve got it,” Dongwan said, grabbing a few tissues from the center of the table and soaking up the small puddle. Eric grinned at the other man and wrapped both arms around his waist.  
  
“Your alcohol tolerance is amazing, Wan-ah, really amazing.”  
  
Dongwan couldn’t help but smile again, slightly embarrassed at the sudden skinship despite having a lot of experience with Eric’s constant displays of affection. He shoved at him half-heartedly with an elbow, but Eric didn’t loosen his grip at all, instead lowering his head to rest against Dongwan’s ribs, nearly lying down next to the couch. Dongwan took a minute to enjoy it. Working so hard lately, he didn’t have much time for comfortable conversations and displays of affection. Finally, though, he elbowed Eric again, successfully making him loosen his grip enough to wiggle out of his grasp.  
  
“Well, if there’s really nothing else you wanted to talk about, I should probably go,” Dongwan said, trying to stand up. Eric grabbed his arm, suddenly, digging into it with the tips of his fingers.  
  
“No! You can’t,” Eric shoved him back down onto the floor and moved toward the couch, sticking one arm under the cushion he’d shoved the book under and holding the other up at Dongwan as a sign to wait.  
  
He had gone through all of the trouble to get Dongwan to visit his apartment and drink with him, so holding on to the book was not an option—no matter how awkward it suddenly felt. Finally his fingers touched the slick cover, now slightly speckled with crumbs. Suddenly feeling very shy, he transferred it to his other hand and held it in front of Dongwan’s face, looking at a spot over the other man’s left ear.  
  
“For you.”  
  
Dongwan, looking confused, but smiling again, took the book out of Eric’s hand and brushed the crumbs away. It was a cheap journal—slightly dirty around the edges, as if it had been shoved in a bag or a drawer for too long. Knowing Eric, it probably had been. There was no outward indication, however, of what was written inside.  
  
“You’re giving me your journal?” Dongwan asked.  
  
“Hmm. Open it,” Eric said, sitting down further away from Dongwan this time—out of arm’s, or fist’s, reach.  
  
Dongwan cleared a spot on the coffee table and put the journal down, opening the cover.  
  
 **~Wannie’s Quotations~**  the otherwise blank title page read. Dongwan looked up at Eric, bemused.  
  
“What is this about?”  
  
“Would you just keep reading it and stop asking questions?” Eric asked, starting to become annoyed by how embarrassed he was.  
  
For fifty pages, Eric had written down each stupid quote, complete with a description of the situation of why it was so embarrassing, and sometimes, when he had felt very creative, a screencap pulled from one of the fancafes. Dongwan leafed through the pages, his expression unreadable. Eric couldn’t tell if he was pissed, amused, or embarrassed. Eric had honestly been hoping for embarrassment, followed by amusement, but he hadn’t expected how embarrassed _he_ would be, watching Dongwan read it. Even more embarrassing was how cute he was finding most of the quotes as he thought back on them, mind slightly unfocused from the alcohol.  
  
 **Page Fifty:**  “To me, Shinhwa is not a choice but a destiny.”  
  
Eric had to admit that the last page of the book was a little sappy. He’d had to call Junjin to remember the exact wording, but it had seemed like the perfect ending after all of the cheesy lines that filled the rest of the journal. It had been a little weird writing it down in the first place, but now, looking at it from over Dongwan’s shoulder, he felt his chest tighten uncomfortably, almost as if he was about to cry.  
  
“Yah, you idiot. Is this what you’ve been working on while the rest of us have been busting our asses?” Dongwan asked, looking up from the last page. His tone, however, was surprisingly soft. Eric didn’t answer, looking at his own hands and smiling, the embarrassment welling up so much he could hardly swallow, and increasing the overwhelming urge to start crying—or peck every inch of Dongwan’s face and neck and thank him for existing. Finally, after a not-uncomfortable silence, he looked up and saw that Dongwan also seemed confused and overwhelmed.  
  
“Yah, you idiot. If you’re going to cry about it after, don’t say such stupid stuff,” Eric said, swallowing hard to erase the lump in his throat. “You should at least feel a little embarrassed instead of being so proud of yourself.”  
  
Dongwan grinned at him for a moment, then grabbed his hand affectionately, beginning to stroke the back of it with his thumb. Eric tightened his own fingers around Dongwan’s, beginning to smile as well.  
  
“You know no matter how much you try and embarrass me about it, I still think all of this is funny, right?”  
  
“I know.”  
  
“And you secretly think it’s funny, too. That’s why you love me.”  
  
“I know.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is weirdly similar in tone/content to "Drinking Habits" but apparently all I can write lately are stories where someone or everyone is drunk, so...


End file.
